Before the Day Is Done
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1004b: The tension rose so high, and now it's threatening to break them, but he's not giving up so easy - Rent series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 47th cycle. Now cycle 48!_

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_**Cycle 48/Day 1000 special: **So, yes, in this cycle, a milestone I had to do something special for.  
In this cycle I'm passing my 1000th consecutive day of gleekathon! So for this, the cycle will feature:  
* 21-day/chapter story for the Sunshine Girls series (This Little Light of Mine)  
* 14-day/chapter story special for day 1000 (Let Me Tell You A Story)  
* One-shot installments from 12 series + 2 non-series  
* And for this cycle and this cycle alone (I swear), 7 'triple shift' days, with 3 chapters/stories going up in the day!_

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_**This is a double shift day.** There will be one more upload today: This Little Light of Mine, chapter 17._

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**"Before the Day Is Done"  
Puck/Rachel  
Project No Day But Today series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
**

_____(Day three of birthday week for the one and only, the fabulous, the exquisite, yes, mag721! :D  
And it is THE most important day of this week, because it is... the birthday! Have a good one, lady ;))_

The whole thing had come about in bits and pieces, in tension building with time. The further into this they got, especially now in a group of thirty-five running a covert play, it was easy to see how it would get overwhelming. And anything could start being taken the wrong way.

So when Rachel had started noticing Puck was sort of… repeatedly unavailable… she started getting suspicious. She didn't want to think that it could ever be true. They were happy, and for all the stories she had heard of his past conquests, he wasn't like that, not now, now with her… But the more he would keep secrets, the more she could feel the dots stretch out to connect.

He wasn't seeing anyone else, though he was doing something he didn't want her to know about… yet. He could also see her getting it in her head that he was up to no good. He couldn't blame her, as much as one might want to… he kind of had the reputation to back it up. So all he could do was to try and hurry up so he'd finish what he was trying to do before she would let this get out of hand.

Apparently he didn't move fast enough, because the longer it took, the more suspicious she got, the harder it got for him not to get unnerved by her accusations. She wouldn't say it in so many words, but he could see it in her eyes. Now he'd been brought to respond, and like they were playing the world's crappiest game of tennis, he'd lobbed the ball right back in her court to come at him again.

He knew there was trouble when she shut down the musical for a few weeks again.

She was pulling away from him, he could feel it. She had given him trust and he had made her feel it had been broken, so of course she would do this. But he wasn't going to just let everything they'd worked on go to waste. And he wasn't going to lose her, not without fighting for her. She had brought so many things into his life, things he couldn't have known he wanted so much until she came along and pulled him into this whole Rent business.

One day, two weeks into the shutdown, he had come to know what he had to do. His secret project had gone and been a bit abandoned when the shutdown had happened, but on that day he would work, non-stop if he had to, and he would finish, so he could get everything back the way it was supposed to be. It was all going to be today, it had to.

It was late by the time he finished. He didn't know how late, but he didn't care. He got into his car and drove to her house. He stood outside her window and texted for her to look down. When she appeared, he motioned for her to open the window. She shook her head, and he insisted. She pointed at her wrist to indicate that it was late, and when he looked at his phone he saw it was after midnight.

"Screw it," he told himself, shoving the phone back in his pocket and looking around for something to climb. There was one tree branch angled just about as close as he could hope for… it was going to be up to him to close the gap… but she wasn't leaving him much of a choice. He grabbed on to the tree and started climbing. He was barely above the second pull when he heard her voice.

"Get down, what are you doing?" she hissed.

"The best I can," he replied, still pulling up. He almost lost his grip at one point, and her squeal didn't help.

"Noah!" she scolded, just as he reached the branch. "You'll never make it across, you're going to kill yourself!"

"I realize that…" he kept going.

"I'll come down, okay, I'll come down, just get back on the ground!" she begged. He looked at her, like he didn't believe her. "I'm coming, see?" she went and took her robe, throwing it over her pyjamas. "Now, down!" she pointed, and he smiled, giving himself a swing before letting go. He dropped to the ground, one good tumble saving him any break – this wasn't his first tree.

He looked up and the still open window was empty. A few seconds later she came tearing around the front of the house, robe flapping in the wind and barefoot. When she saw him, saw he was alright, she stumbled a second but then came at him faster, smacking his arm hard. "Ow!" he laughed.

"Don't… do that… ever… Noah Puckerman!"

"I'm sorry, stop hitting me!" She stopped, hit him once more, then pulled back. He paused, waiting to see if she was really done, then let his arm down. "Hi."

"What are you doing here?" she pulled her robe closer around herself. He came up to her.

"I'm not… I'm not cheating on you, okay?" he looked her in the eye, and she blinked.

"I never said y…"

"No, but you were thinking it, don't deny it." She said nothing, so that was that. "I should have said something, I know. But I wanted to finish first."

"Finish what?" she asked.

"I wouldn't cheat on you, you have to know that. Maybe before, I might have done… I don't know… I've never had a relationship like this before, and no matter what, I'm not going to screw things up, not this one, not you, and me… I've changed, haven't I?" he asked her, and she had just a small wistful smile. "I'm still me, but with the Rachel Berry bonus," he went on. "And I'm not about to go back." She looked at him, breathing deep. She was coming around.

"I don't want you to go back either."

"Good, as long as we're on the same page," he nodded. She let out a breath, and with it her frustrations, too.

"What were you doing all this time? You wouldn't say, and I…" she shook her head.

"It was supposed to be a surprise," he admitted. "It's done now, I finally finished… tonight. I can show you," he told her, and then she realized he meant…

"Wait, right now?"

"No, I mean… you might want to put on some shoes."

"It's almost one, this is like… way past curfew."

"Forget curfew? Just this once?" he begged. "For me?" She looked at him, seeking her answer… She knew what her fathers would do if they caught her. It wasn't like she made a habit of this, but…

"Give me ten minutes so I can get dressed? Not going wherever you want to take me in my pyj… Where are you taking me exactly?" she asked, but just as he went to answer, "Right, I remember, it's a surprise…" He could hear her muttering as she went back toward the house.

Once she was gone, he let out a breath… His legs were shaking, and he wasn't sure if it was the drop, or the chance that she would have said no.

THE END/TO BE CONCLUDED (day 1023, August 9th)

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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